If you're thinking of a direct mechanical linkage, you wouldn't want to put it up on the tower because the mass to effectively store megawatt-scale power is way more than you'd want to support up high. Also, since the wind blade usually swivels to the wind, you'd want to avoid the rotational inertia. So, you'd need a mechanical linkage to transmit the power to the ground, maybe installing it under the tower base.
You would not want to use a direct mechanical attachment, i.e., resembling a combustion engine - transmission flywheel, because this would impair the ability of the wind turbine to start. Generally, turbines are designed for minimum inertia to easily start in low-wind conditions. A direct connection would impede that.
Now, we're adding a clutch-sort of mechanism, and that has its own additional complexity, weight, and energy.
Moreover, considering that we're trying to store megawatt-scale energies, we are at a large mass spinning very fast, and probably spun up with an electric motor.
So, it would seem the best way to do that would be to make a flywheel farm, with the flywheels below ground to contain failures. At this point, why locate it in the probably inconvenient location where the wind turbines are located, and instead put it somewhere more convenient, such as nearer to the consumption areas?
If you're thinking of a direct mechanical linkage, you wouldn't want to put it up on the tower because the mass to effectively store megawatt-scale power is way more than you'd want to support up high. Also, since the wind blade usually swivels to the wind, you'd want to avoid the rotational inertia. So, you'd need a mechanical linkage to transmit the power to the ground, maybe installing it under the tower base.
You would not want to use a direct mechanical attachment, i.e., resembling a combustion engine - transmission flywheel, because this would impair the ability of the wind turbine to start. Generally, turbines are designed for minimum inertia to easily start in low-wind conditions. A direct connection would impede that.
Now, we're adding a clutch-sort of mechanism, and that has its own additional complexity, weight, and energy.
Moreover, considering that we're trying to store megawatt-scale energies, we are at a large mass spinning very fast, and probably spun up with an electric motor.
So, it would seem the best way to do that would be to make a flywheel farm, with the flywheels below ground to contain failures. At this point, why locate it in the probably inconvenient location where the wind turbines are located, and instead put it somewhere more convenient, such as nearer to the consumption areas?